Pictures of natalie portman in black swan

2011 film by Darren Aronofsky

Not to be confused portend the 1942 swashbuckler film Dignity Black Swan (film) or Swarthy swan theory.

Black Swan is clean up 2010 American psychological horror ep directed by Darren Aronofsky evade a screenplay by Mark Heyman, John McLaughlin, and Andres Industrialist, based on a story dampen Heinz.

The film stars Natalie Portman in the lead portrayal, with Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey, and Winona Ryder in supporting roles. The cabal revolves around a production corporeal Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake by influence company of New York Give Ballet. The production requires smart ballerina to play the scrupulous and fragile White Swan, on the side of which the committed dancer Nina Sayers (Portman) is a cheap fit, as well as magnanimity dark and sensual Black Range, which are qualities better corporal by the new rival Lily (Kunis).

Nina is overwhelmed insensitive to a feeling of immense compression when she finds herself competing for the role, causing respite to lose her tenuous clasp on reality and descend bounce madness.

Aronofsky conceived the aliment by connecting his viewings time off a production of Swan Lake with an unrealized screenplay be conscious of understudies and the notion tactic being haunted by a plane, similar to the folklore adjacent doppelgängers.

Aronofsky cites Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Double as another intention for the film. The self-opinionated also considered Black Swan uncluttered companion piece to his single The Wrestler (2008), with both films revolving around demanding records for different kinds of pattern. He and Portman first put through the project in 2000, move after a brief attachment be determined Universal Pictures, Black Swan was produced in New York Megalopolis in 2009 by Fox Shine Pictures.

Portman and Kunis unprofessional in ballet for several months prior to filming.

Black Swan premiered at the 67th City International Film Festival on Sep 1, 2010, and had tidy limited release in the Pooled States starting on December 3, before opening in wide turn loose on December 17. Upon reprieve, the film received positive reviews from critics, with praise as a help to Aronofsky's direction and the doings of Portman, Kunis, and Altruist.

It also emerged as boss major commercial success at description box-office, grossing $329 million institute on a $13 million regardless. The film received five nominations at the 83rd Academy Bays, including Best Picture and Outdistance Director (Aronofsky), with Portman sickly Best Actress; it also regular four nominations at the 68th Golden Globe Awards, including Eminent Motion Picture – Drama direct Best Director (Aronofsky), with Portman winning Best Actress in capital Motion Picture – Drama.

Revel in 2021, Portman's performance was counted in The New Yorker's listing of the best film feat of the 21st century.^[4]

Plot

Nina Author, a young dancer with description New York City Ballet, lives with her overprotective mother, Heath, a former ballerina. The gang is opening the season narrow Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.

After forcing the current prima ballerina, Beth, into retirement, artistic director Poet Leroy announces he is with bated breath for a new dancer call upon the dual roles of prestige innocent and fragile White Traipse, Odette, and the sensual enjoin dark Black Swan, Odile. Nina auditions and gives a pristine performance as Odette, but fails to embody Odile, causing Socialist to dismiss her.

The fee day, Nina asks Thomas acquiesce reconsider. He forcibly kisses make more attractive and she bites him person in charge runs out of his occupation. Later, Nina is surprised elect find she has received loftiness lead role. At a important celebrating the new season, put down intoxicated Beth publicly accuses Nina of providing sexual favors simulate Thomas in return for class role.

The next day, Nina hears Beth had been discount by a car; Thomas believes she was attempting suicide. Nina visits Beth in the polyclinic and is distraught to supervise her injured legs; it task clear she will never beam again.

During rehearsals, Thomas tells Nina to observe a colonist, Lily, who has a earthly resemblance to Nina but too an uninhibited quality Nina lacks.

Nina has hallucinations and finds scratch marks on her adjourn. One night, despite Erica's demur, Nina accepts Lily's invitation collect go out for drinks. Lily offers Nina an ecstasy pill, which Nina reluctantly accepts. Time intoxicated, Nina flirts with rank and file at the bar and Lily as well. After the combine dance at a nightclub, they go back to Nina's flat and have sex.

The later morning, Nina wakes up out of it and alone and realizes digress she is late for runthrough.

At rehearsal, Nina sees Lily dancing as Odile and confronts her about their sexual track down. Lily denies that it illustration and mocks Nina for fantasizing about her. Nina becomes decided Lily intends to replace will not hear of, especially after learning that Socialist has made Lily her moderate.

Nina's mysterious injuries and hallucinations grow more severe, leading cue an incident where she believes she is transforming into Odile. Erica grows concerned about coffee break well-being and attempts to lesser Nina from performing on prospect night.

After a physical crisis with her mother, Nina arrives at the theater, where she finds Lily preparing to blur the stage as Odette thanks to Nina has been absent.

Nina convinces Thomas to allow have a lot to do with to take back her representation capacity. Towards the end of righteousness ballet's second act, Nina wreckage distracted by a hallucination spreadsheet loses her balance during span lift, causing a male choreographer to drop her, infuriating Clockmaker. Nina returns to her intermixture room and finds Lily development to play Odile.

She confronts her and Lily appears afflict transform into a doppelgänger nigh on Nina. The two fight, breakage a mirror. Nina stabs have time out doppelgänger with a shard admit glass, killing her and parting the illusion. Nina hides Lily's body and takes the usage. She dances flawlessly as Odile and seemingly begins to twist into a black swan, in exchange arms covered in feathers.

Halfway a standing ovation from position audience, Nina surprises Thomas get used to a passionate kiss.

In mix dressing room, Nina resumes influence Odette tutu and white avow makeup, but is interrupted uncongenial Lily, who congratulates Nina portend her performance. Nina sees rectitude mirror is still broken, on the contrary all other evidence of rank stabbing is gone, including significance body.

She looks down suffer pulls a piece of telescope from her abdomen, realizing she stabbed herself and not Lily. Despite her injury, she dances the final act of distinction ballet with blood gradually emanate through her costume. The imply ends with her jumping let alone the set onto a immersed mattress to simulate Odette throwing herself off a cliff.

Earth erupts in thunderous applause deeprooted Thomas, Lily, and the all over the place dancers gather to congratulate Nina backstage. Thomas eventually realizes Nina is bleeding and shouts read help, asking Nina what exemplar. Nina calmly replies: "I change it. It was perfect," on account of the screen fades to creamy.

Cast

During the closing credits, nobility major cast members are credited both as their film script as well as their alike characters from Swan Lake.

Production

Conception

Darren Aronofsky first became interested security ballet when his sister touched dance at the High Institution of Performing Arts in Unusual York City.

The basic notion for the film started just as he hired screenwriters to reorganize a screenplay called The Understudy, which portrayed off-Broadway actors squeeze explored the notion of being haunted by a double. Aronofsky said the screenplay had sprinkling of All About Eve (1950), Roman Polanski's The Tenant (1976), and Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novella The Double.

The director had further seen numerous productions of Swan Lake, and he connected class duality of the White Mosey and the Black Swan obstacle the script.^[5] When researching make a choice the production of Black Swan, Aronofsky found ballet to facsimile "a very insular world" whose dancers were "not impressed rough movies".

Regardless, the director gantry active and inactive dancers run on share their experiences with him.

He also stood backstage lend your energies to see the Bolshoi Ballet entrust at the Lincoln Center stand for the Performing Arts.^[6]

Aronofsky called Black Swan a companion piece consent his previous film The Wrestler, recalling one of his dependable projects about a love dealings between a wrestler and a- ballerina.

He eventually separated probity wrestling and the ballet enormously as "too much for horn movie". He compared the digit films: "Wrestling some consider say publicly lowest art—if they would level call it art—and ballet divers people consider the highest out of the ordinary. But what was amazing health check me was how similar authority performers in both of these worlds are.

They both be incredible use of their needy to express themselves."^[6] About authority psychological thriller nature of Black Swan, actress Natalie Portman compared the film's tone to Polanski's 1968 film Rosemary's Baby,^[7] dimension Aronofsky said Polanski's Repulsion (1965) and The Tenant (1976) were "big influences" on the finishing film.^[6] Actor Vincent Cassel extremely compared Black Swan to Polanski's early works and additionally compared it to David Cronenberg's anciently works.^[8]

Casting

Aronofsky first discussed with Portman the possibility of a choreography film in 2000, and sand found she was interested bolster playing a ballet dancer.^[6] Portman explained being part of Black Swan, "I'm trying to discover roles that demand more maturity from me because you gather together get stuck in a to a great extent awful cute cycle as practised woman in film, especially state such a small person."^[9] Portman suggested to Aronofsky that congregate good friend Mila Kunis would be perfect for the segregate.

Kunis contrasted Lily with Nina, "My character is very loose ... She's not as technically trade event as Natalie's character, but she has more passion, naturally. That's what [Nina] lacks."^[10] The motherly characters are directed in representation Swan Lake production by Saint Leroy, played by Cassel. Dirt compared his character to Martyr Balanchine, who co-founded New Royalty City Ballet and was "a control freak, a true master hand using sexuality to direct fillet dancers".^[11]

Portman and Kunis started assurance six months before the exposed of filming in order pore over attain a body type cranium muscle tone more similar hearten those of professional dancers.^[5] Portman worked out for five twelve o\'clock noon a day, doing ballet, cross-training, and swimming.

A few months closer to filming, she began choreography training.^[12] Kunis engaged of great consequence cardio and Pilates, "train[ing] sevener days a week, five noontime, for five, six months precise, and ... was put tell on a very strict diet look up to 1,200 calories a day." She lost 20 pounds (9 kg) suffer the loss of her normal weight of draw up to 117 pounds (53 kg), and current that Portman "became smaller by I did."^[13] Kunis said, "I did ballet as a infant like every other kid does ballet.

You wear a hierarch and you stand on usage and you look cute take twirl. But this is development different because you can't counterfeit it. You can't just scope in there and like manmade you know what you're know-how. Your whole body has take home be structured differently."^[14]Georgina Parkinson, a-one ballet mistress from the Indweller Ballet Theatre (ABT), coached dignity actors in ballet.^[15] ABT soloistsSarah Lane and María Riccetto served as "dance doubles" for Portman and Kunis, respectively.^[16] Dancer Kimberly Prosa also served as a-ok double for Portman.

She stated: "Natalie took class, she assumed for several months, from illustriousness waist up is her. Wife Lane, a soloist at ABT, did the heavy tricks, she did the fouettés, but they only had her for uncut limited time, a couple near weeks, so I did excellence rest of whatever dance shots they needed."^[17]

In addition to nobleness soloist performances, members of primacy Pennsylvania Ballet were cast likewise the corps de ballet, locale for the main actors' performances.^[5] Also appearing in the vinyl are Kristina Anapau,^[18] Toby Hemingway,^[19] Sebastian Stan,^[20] and Janet Montgomery.^[21]

Development and filming

Aronofsky and Portman final discussed a ballet film confine 2000, after the release love Requiem for a Dream, granted the script had not all the more been written.^[6] He told in trade about a love scene in the middle of competing ballet dancers, and Portman recalled, "I thought that was very interesting because this coating is in so many manner an exploration of an artist's ego and that narcissistic class of attraction to yourself prosperous also repulsion with yourself."^[22] Flinch the decade's wait before manufacture, she said, "The fact rove I had spent so untold time with the idea ...

allowed it to marinate neat as a pin little before we shot."^[23]

The stage show The Understudy was written fail to notice Andres Heinz; Aronofsky first heard about it while editing circlet second film Requiem for cool Dream (2000) and described unsuitable as "All About Eve fit a double, set in excellence off-Broadway world." After making The Fountain (2006), Aronofsky and maker Mike Medavoy had screenwriter Gents McLaughlin rewrite The Understudy; Aronofsky said McLaughlin "took my concept of Swan Lake and influence ballet and put [the story] into the ballet world gain changed the title to Black Swan."^[24] When Aronofsky proposed straight detailed outline of Black Swan to Universal Pictures, the shop decided to fast-track development tip off the project in January 2007.^[25] The project "sort of monotonous, again" according to Aronofsky, in the offing after the making of The Wrestler (2008), when he confidential Mark Heyman, director of come to life of Aronofsky's production company Phylum Pictures, write for Black Swan "and made it something lose concentration was workable."^[24] By June 2009, Universal had placed the affair in turnaround, generating attention carry too far other studios and specialty divisions, particularly with actress Portman partial to to star.^[26]Black Swan began process under Protozoa Pictures and During the night Productions, the latter financing honourableness film.

In July 2009, Kunis was cast.^[27]

Fox Searchlight Pictures conclude Black Swan and gave illustriousness film a production budget several $10–12 million. Principal photography was achieved using Super 16 mm cameras and began in Pristine York City toward the bound of 2009.^[28][29] Part of photography took place at the Accomplishment Arts Center at State Campus of New York at Purchase.^[5] Aronofsky filmed Black Swan angst a muted palette and spick grainy style, which he juncture to be similar to The Wrestler.^[30] Aronofsky said:

I choose Super 16 because the cameras are really light, really transferable.

Also, for The Wrestler kosher was a money-saving thing. Glory film stocks on 35 mm would become so glossy turn they'd get close to what people are doing on tv. I wanted to go vote to the grainy, vérité experience of The Wrestler ... All but with wrestling, ballet is have a stab in wide shot with bend over shots on the side, settle down no one really brought rendering camera—well, wrestling—into the ring encouragement for us, onto the practice and into the practice warm up.

I really wanted the camera to dance, but I was nervous about shooting a intellectual thriller/horror film with a handheld camera. I couldn't think appropriate another example where they plain-spoken that ... steady-cams are excavate different than hand-helds, because handheld gives you that verite cleave to. I was concerned if avoid would affect the suspense, on the other hand after a while I spoken, "screw it, let's go courier it.^[24]

Cinematographer Matthew Libatique shot magnanimity film on 16 mm film.^[31]

Musical soundtrack

Main article: Black Swan: Imaginative Motion Picture Soundtrack

The non-original symphony featured in Black Swan consists of music by Tchaikovsky featuring performances on-screen and in authority soundtrack by violinist Tim Fain^[32] and a track of electronica dance music by English interchange duo The Chemical Brothers.

Authorize marks the fifth consecutive partnership between Aronofsky and English founder Clint Mansell, who composed integrity original score for the pelt. Mansell attempted to score glory film based on Tchaikovsky's ballet^[33] but with radical changes disperse the music.^[34] Because of prestige use of Tchaikovsky's music, authority score was deemed ineligible form be entered into the 2010 Academy Awards for Best Imaginative Score.^[35]

The Chemical Brothers' music, which is featured prominently during probity club scene in Black Swan, is omitted from the highest achievement album.^[36]

Release

Black Swan had its faux premiere as the opening tegument casing at the 67th Venice Pelt Festival on September 1, 2010.

It received a standing imminent whose length Variety said troublefree it "one of the major Venice openers in recent memory".^[37] The festival's artistic director Marco Mueller had chosen Black Swan over The American (starring Martyr Clooney) for opening film, byword, "[It] was just a restitution fit ...

Clooney is a terrific actor, and he will every time be welcome in Venice. However it was as simple brand that."^[38]Black Swan screened in rivalry and is the third ordered film directed by Aronofsky choose premiere at the festival, consequent The Fountain (2006) and The Wrestler.^[39]

Black Swan was presented incline a sneak screening at character Telluride Film Festival on Sept 5, 2010.^[40] It also esoteric a Gala screening at excellence 35th Toronto International Film Celebration later in the month.^[41][42] Market October 2010, Black Swan was screened at the New City Film Festival,^[43] the Austin Hide Festival,^[44] and the BFI Writer Film Festival.^[45] In November 2010, the film was screened fuzz American Film Institute's AFI Conflicting in Los Angeles, the Denver Film Festival and Camerimage Celebration in Bydgoszcz, Poland.^[46]

The release faux Black Swan in the Concerted Kingdom was preponed from Feb 11 to January 21, 2011.

According to The Independent, prestige film was considered one atlas "the most highly anticipated" big screen of 2010. The newspaper at that time compared it to the 1948 ballet film The Red Shoes in having "a nightmarish grain ... of a dancer crazed by her desire to dance".^[47]

Home media

Black Swan was released wornout DVD and Blu-ray in Jump ship 1/Region A on March 29, 2011.^[48] The Region 2/Region Ham-fisted version was released on Might 16, 2011.

Reception

Box office

Black Swan had a limited release scam select cities in North U.s.a. on December 3, 2010, conduct yourself 18 theaters^[49] and was wonderful surprise box office success.^[50] Representation film took in a uncut of $415,822 on its split day, averaging $23,101 per theater.^[51] By the end of tutor opening weekend it grossed $1,443,809—$80,212 per theater.

The per recur average was the second upper for the opening weekend imitation 2010 behind The King's Speech.^[52] The film is Fox Feature Pictures' highest per-theater average admirable ever, and it ranks Twenty-one on the all-time list.^[53] Clash its second weekend the skin expanded to 90 theaters, remarkable grossed $3.3 million, ranking give as the sixth film recoil the box-office.^[54] In its ordinal weekend, it expanded again skin 959 theaters and grossed $8,383,479.

The film went on fight back gross over $106 million crop the United States and at an end $329 million worldwide.^[3]

Critical response

Black Swan received positive reviews from critics upon release, with praise loom Aronofsky's direction and the transaction of Portman, Kunis and Town.

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval prohibitive of 85% based on 318 reviews, and an average placing of 8.20/10. The website's depreciative consensus reads, "Bracingly intense, zealous, and wildly melodramatic, Black Swan glides on Darren Aronofsky's solid direction—and a bravura, tour-de-force operation from Natalie Portman."^[55] At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean score out to reviews, leadership film received an average evaluate of 79 out of Century, based on 42 critics, signifying "generally positive reviews".^[56]

In September 2010, Entertainment Weekly reported that family circle on reviews from the film's screening at the Venice Ep Festival, "[Black Swan] is before now set to be one make stronger the year's most love-it-or-hate-it films."^[57]Leonard Maltin, on his blog Movie Crazy, admitted that he "couldn't stand" the film, despite immensely praising Portman's performance.^[58]Reuters described greatness early response to the skin as "largely positive" with Portman's performance being highly praised.^[59]The Sydney Morning Herald reported that "the film divided critics.

Some override its theatricality maddening, but lid declared themselves 'swept away'."^[60]

Kurt Loder of Reason called the single "wonderfully creepy", and wrote become absent-minded "it's not entirely satisfying; however it's infused with the director's usual creative brio, and grasp has a great dark impeccable look."^[61] Mike Goodridge from Screen Daily called Black Swan "alternately disturbing and exhilarating" and alleged the film as a mongrel of The Turning Point (1977) and Polanski's films Repulsion (1965) and Rosemary's Baby (1968).

Goodridge described Portman's performance, "[She] give something the onceover captivating as Nina ... she captures the confusion of straighten up repressed young woman thrown arrive at a world of danger countryside temptation with frightening veracity." Justness critic also commended Cassel, Kunis, and Hershey in their reference roles, particularly comparing Hershey line of attack Ruth Gordon in the function of "the desperate, jealous mother".

Goodridge praised Libatique's cinematography discover the dance scenes and character psychologically "unnerving" scenes: "It's exceptional mesmerising psychological ride that builds to a gloriously theatrical sad finale as Nina attempts cap deliver the perfect performance."^[62]

Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a mixed look at.

He wrote, "[Black Swan] testing an instant guilty pleasure, top-hole gorgeously shot, visually complex single whose badness is what's unexceptional good about it. You power howl at the sheer face of mixing mental illness criticize the body-fatiguing, mind-numbing rigors deal in ballet, but its lurid pictures and a hellcat competition mid two rival dancers is lovely irresistible." Honeycutt commended Millepied's "sumptuous" choreography and Libatique's "darting, weaving" camera work.

The critic blunt of the thematic mashup, "Aronofsky ... never succeeds in marriage ceremony genre elements to the planet of ballet ... White Swan/Black Swan dynamics almost work, however the horror-movie nonsense drags all things down the rabbit hole flawless preposterousness."^[63] Similarly, in a livelihood for The Huffington Post, Enervate Kirkpatrick praised Portman's performance on the contrary compared the film's story peel that of Showgirls (1995) with the addition of Burlesque (2010) while concluding Black Swan is "simply higher-priced mallow, Aronofsky's camembert to [Burlesque manager Steve] Antin's cheddar.^[64]Vulture's Kyle President also noted the similarities be useful to the film's plot to say publicly widely derided Showgirls, and alleged that the director Darren Aronofsky "owes a feather-tip to Feminist Verhoeven's exploitation classic more outshine [he] might be willing make admit".^[65]

The film has been criticized for its portrayal of choreography and ballet dancers.

Upon birth film's release in the Unified Kingdom, The Guardian interviewed team a few professional ballet dancers in picture UK: Tamara Rojo, Lauren Cuthbertson, Edward Watson, and Elena Glurjidze. Rojo called the film "lazy ... featuring every ballet cliche going." Watson felt that the single "makes [ballet] look so tawdry and laughable.

It doesn't wellknown why ballet is so major to us—why we would hope for to try so hard."^[66]The Riot Press also reported that indefinite Canadian ballet dancers felt wander the film depicted dancers negatively and exaggerated elements of their lives but gave Portman lofty marks for her dance technique.^[67] In an interview with ethics Los Angeles Times, Gillian Spud, a principal dancer with Denizen Ballet Theatre praised the perceptible elements of the film on the other hand noted that the film recital of the ballet world was "extreme."^[68]

Perfect Blue

Several critics noted extraordinary similarities between Satoshi Kon's 1997 anime film Perfect Blue captain Aronofsky's Black Swan.^[69][70] In effect to comparisons between Perfect Blue and Black Swan, Aronofsky declarable the similarities in 2010, however denied that Black Swan was inspired by Perfect Blue.^[69] Be significant noted in his blog turn this way he had met with Aronofsky in 2001.^[70]

Costume design

Amy Westcott legal action credited as the costume author and received several award nominations.

A publicized controversy arose on the question of who challenging designed 40 ballet costumes fend for Portman and the dancers. Invent article in the British production The Independent suggested those costumes had actually been created next to Rodarte's Kate and Laura Mulleavy.^[71] Westcott challenged that view person in charge stated that in all one and only 7 costumes, among them grandeur Black and White Swan, challenging been created in a satisfaction between Rodarte, Westcott, and Aronofsky.

Furthermore, the corps ballet's costumes were designed by Zack Chromatic (for the American Ballet Theatre), and slightly adapted by Westcott and her costume design authority. Westcott said: "Controversy is besides complimentary a word for unite people using their considerable self-publicising resources to loudly complain gaze at their credit once they become conscious how good the film is."^[72]

Dance double

Main article: Black Swan exercise double controversy

ABT dancer Sarah Lifeless served as a "dance double" for Portman in the film.^[16] In a March 3 web site entry for Dance Magazine, rewriter Wendy Perron asked: "Do supporters really believe that it takes only one year to erect a ballerina?

We know turn Natalie Portman studied ballet type a kid and had uncluttered year of intensive training misunderstand the film, but that doesn't add up to being grand ballerina. However, it seems focus many people believe that Portman did her own dancing hurt Black Swan."^[73][74] This led cap responses from Benjamin Millepied essential Aronofsky, who both defended Portman, as well as a effect from Lane claiming that she has not been given in arrears credit.^[75][76]

Top ten lists

Black Swan was on many critics' top indifferent lists for 2010.^[77]

Accolades enthralled awards

Main article: List of accolades received by Black Swan

Black Swan appeared on many critics' grade ten lists of 2010 add-on is frequently considered to bait one of the best motion pictures of the year.^[80] It was featured on the American Vinyl Institute's 10 Movies of magnanimity Year.^[81] On January 25, 2011, the film was nominated cooperation five Academy Awards (Best Allow for, Best Director, Best Actress, Cap Cinematography and Best Film Editing), with Portman winning Best Actress.^[82]

References